Aware Migrants

Credits: The Independent

“Sometimes they would just come and take you, make you do your work and then go. If you asked for money, you were looking for your death.” Bright, a 29-year-old Nigerian man, laughs bitterly at the thought of challenging the heavily armed Libyan men who forced him to work in the conflict-ridden country for four years.

He is among thousands of migrants to risk deadly boat crossings over the Mediterranean Sea to escape abuse in Libya, which has become one of the world’s major hubs of modern slavery. The brutal reality in Libya was far from the prosperity Bright hoped for when leaving his home in 2013, after being told widespread destruction from the brutal Libyan civil war had generated a thriving market for construction workers.

Read more: Independent.co.uk